Durex Shares Condoms for World AIDS Day Awareness

A group at the Coppin State University in Baltimore attempt to make the world’s largest human AIDS ribbon during World AIDS Day 2011. AP Photo/Patrick Semansk

World AIDS Day is December 1 and Durex Condoms launched a social media campaign encouraging users to spread awareness and donate condoms.

The #1share1condom campaign started on November 26 and will run through December 1. For every tweet sharing a statistic about HIV/AIDS with the #1share1condom hashtag, or for every share of Durex’s photos or videos from its Facebook page, the company will donate one condom to global and local charities that work to combat HIV-transmission.

“Durex is committed to improving knowledge and understanding of HIV and to raise awareness of how to prevent HIV transmission,” said Kevin Harshaw, marketing director of personal care at Reckitt Benckiser, the parent company of Durex, in a statement about the campaign. “We’ve supported the fight against HIV over the years, mainly through local projects. This year, we have decided to use our global market presence to create an initiative that will get the world talking and sharing.”

Just this week, we got two disturbing pieces of news about the fight against AIDS. First, we got word that young people between the ages of 13 and 24 account for a full quarter of the new HIV cases. And, according to the Herald-Tribuneblack males having unprotected sex with other men are the most at risk.

“Of the 12,200 new HIV cases recorded in 2011, 57.4 percent were among blacks, 19.6 percent among Hispanics/Latinos, and 19.5 percent among whites. Almost 75 percent of the cases were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact,” the paper says.

Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control found that only one-third of young people (between the ages of 17 and 24) are being tested. Only 13 percent of high school students were tested in 2011. “The CDC estimates about 1.1 million people are living with HIV in the United States and that about 50,000 people get the virus each year. One in four infections occur among those ages 13 to 24 — or about 1,000 per month,” Politico says.

Durex hopes to donate 2.5 million condoms, representing the 2.5 million people who were infected with HIV last year. According to the 1share1condom website, as of Thursday morning, more than 912,000 condoms have been donated.